My 2025

 

The year 2025 was a definite rollercoaster ride for me. Lot's of ups. Lot's of downs. A bit of screaming. We made it to the end, just about in one piece. 

I had some plans for last year. It was supposed to be a significant year for me. Some of those plans came to pass. Other's withered and died on the vine. But in a difficult year, I did have a few high points, and achievements. 

One of my ambitions for 2025, was to dress as Deeanna in each calender month of the year. I haven't managed that before.  And I still haven't managed it. I'm afraid I fell at the first fence. January turned out to be quite a difficult month. So I didn't dress at all. So that ambition was gone for the year. 

January saw me going on a CBT course. The psychotherapy type Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, not Compulsory Bike Training or another unmentionable thing with the anachronism CBT that involves doing unmentionable things to someone's unmentionables. I'll leave you to find that one out for yourselves. I'm not going to mention the details and I certainly wouldn't want to go on a course of it.

It was a 5 week course intended to allow the NHS to tick a box that they had made a token gesture towards dealing with stress and mental health. Did it work? Yes it did. The NHS ticked the box that said it had fulfilled it's responsibilities.  Did it help me? No it didn't. It was rubbish. I didn't feel any better afterwards. I was told I could ask for a re-referal and go back on the waiting list. I didn't bother. I realised that only I can fix myself.  I've tried to get on top of my anxiety and depression this year, and I feel a little more resilient in the face of continuous trauma. 

My Wife did have a nasty fall in January,  but I managed to get her back up using our lifting equipment. 

I did get some nice dressing done in February and took a few nice photos. 

I'm a big American football fan, and my favourite team,  the Philadelphia Eagles won the Superbowl in February which I celebrated with a photo in one of my Eagles shirts.

There was another fall for my Wife to contend with in February. It happened while I was out at the dentist. I managed to get her up when I got home, but she spent 2 hours on the floor. I suggested that for future times when I'm out, we may need to arrange a respite carer to sit with her. That suggestion fell on deaf ears. 

March proved to be a ridiculously busy month with lots of medical appointments to attend for both my Wife and myself. So I didn't manage to get any dressing done. 

  One positive achievement for this month, was getting a new decked area built at the back of the house, which allows my Wife to access the garden in her wheelchair. That has been a game changer for her.

April saw a definite warming up of the weather and we had a lovely Spring, perfect for using our new decking. It was a fairly quiet, uneventful month, which I needed after a frantic few weeks. I did manage to get some dressing done. Just one session where I wore my green tiered top, which I love.

April also saw me setting up this very blog and making my first posts. It's been a wonderful experience for me, and I hope to continue with my blogging journey. 

May was a very good month for me. And a definite highlight of 2025. My friend Nikki was coming on holiday to Cornwall and we planned to meet up. Nikki and I have been friends for 16 years, but never actually met face to face. So in early May, I drove the 25 miles to the far West of Cornwall to spend a morning and have lunch with Nikki. It was wonderful to finally meet her. Hopefully we will be able to meet up again before too long, because she is a wonderful friend. 

 

Later in May, I had a lovely relaxed dressing day and wore a new dress and matching cardigan set, which is very lovely. It was a very enjoyable day and I got some lovely photos. 

 

June was a busy month and the weather was really hot. I found the Summer heat meant that I lacked a lot of motivation for dressing.  Looking back, I'm quite disappointed that I didn't dress as often during the Summer, as I hoped I would. I dressed twice towards the end of June. The first dressing session felt hurried and I got flustered and didn't enjoy it. It showed in the photos but I did get one nice photo. But it wasn't an enjoyable dressing session. I was quite upset. 

But I decided that I needed to dress again to erase the memory of a bad dressing session, so I decided to have a photo session wearing a gorgeous red pvc rainmac. Even though it was warm and sunny and in the middle of a drought. But it made me happy and got me back on track a little, although it really took a cooling of the weather in the Autumn to fully restore my dressing mojo.

July was another hot and sultry month and I only managed one dressing session. I tried on a red tailored jacket that I had bought 16 years ago, and hadn't worn for 15. And it fitted perfectly, so I got some nice photos wearing it.

August was a very busy month as we had family coming to visit. So dressing fell by the wayside for this month. But it was lovely to see family so it was mostly a good month. Sadly my Wife had another fall at the end of the month. 

And so we come to September and the start of Autumn. Autumn is always a good season for dressing, and so it proved yet again. I had a couple of vintage dresses I wanted to wear. A blue dress and a pink dress. I also wanted to try a blonde wig. So I purchased a short blonde wig from Natural Image wigs. I loved the colour but didn't feel the style suited me.

I decided to buy another blonde wig in a different style. I purchased a Sky wig, by Noriko. I love Noriko wigs. They are very good quality. This wig came from Simply Wigs. It looked amazing from the moment I first tried it on. I absolutely love it. I just had to wear it with my vintage dresses. 

On the first vintage dressing session, I wore my blue Lady Vintage dress. I really loved the photos I took of myself in this dress.

I also took a few photos in this dress with my ochre yellow faux leather biker jacket. But sadly I noticed that the outer layer of the collar was flaking off,so it was the last wear of a favourite in my wardrobe. I'll try and find a real leather replacement for it, because I have loved it. 

I still had my pink dress to wear, so I had another dressing session a few days later,and had a totally pink experience with the pink dress and matching accessories. It was a fun session. 

I decided to keep with the vintage vibe for October. But as the weather was getting colder and wetter, I wore a nice red cashmere cardigan which suited the dresses perfectly and stayed indoors. I wore two dresses. One floral one, and a polka dots dress. I got some lovely photos. 

I did have a bit of a difficult time during October and November with a hoarse voice. After two months of struggling with it, I found it was caused by the Statins that I had just been prescribed, weakening my vocal chords. Since I gave up taking them, things are rapidly improving. 

November was also a good month for dressing. I had bought a long blonde wig, on a whim, from Amazon. It was only cheap. I wore it with my red cardigan and black faux leather dress and I think it looked great. It's not the best quality, so it sheds a bit. But otherwise it's great for the money.  The outfit I wore was intended to be worn the following month, when I visited my friend Veronica. Sadly I never got to wear it on that day. But that's a story for the next month. 

I also managed to get a few more dressing sessions in and all in all, November was a good month. I took some photos in a lovely pvc raincoat that Veronica had given to me a few years ago. I love the colour. I need more of this shade in my life.

Then I took the coat off and took a few photos, showing off my gorgeous animal print dress. I absolutely love this dress.

I also took changed gear completely and dressed in a very demure style with my lovely pink twinset cardigan. It's a look i really love.

And so we arrive at December. The last month of the year, and a month of celebration. Well something that I was definitely celebrating was a visit to my friend Veronica at last. It should have been a full day together, but that wasn't to be, because my Wife unfortunately had a fall at home, and so i was called back, just after lunch. But we had a lovely morning and lunch, and it was wonderful being back in my friend's company again. Hopefully we will get a care package in place that allows me to have full uninterrupted visits in future. Thankfully we had taken aome photos in the morning. 

My Wife went on to have a further 4 falls in December, which is very worrying. She normally only has about 3 falls a year. She is rapidly going downhill as regards her muscle strength and mobility. She's had 7 falls in total during 2025, which is over double, previous years.

I had one more short dressing session in December, and chose to go back to my brunette coiffed wig with a homely look in my blue cardigan and a favourite floral dress. It was the same outfit that I wore to see Nikki, back in May.

Christmas came and want. It was an ok Christmas. Not a vintage one. Not a bad one. Just an average Christmas. And before we knew it, 2025 was over.

In many ways it's been a challenging year, but on the dressing front, it's mostly been quite a positive one, although I wished I'd kept my momentum up during the hot Summer months.

2025 has been a year when the low points have been very low and the high points have been very high.  

Let's hope 2026 is a little more even.

Deeanna 

💋💋💋